Garth Brooks was visibly emotional while performing “Stronger Than Me” at Wednesday’s 2018 CMA Awards. A song he performed for his wife, Trisha Yearwood, the singer debuted the poignant ballad at the awards show as Trisha looked on from the front row.

The song’s emotional lyrics had Garth choked up at one point and by the song’s end, Trisha was visibly tearing up in the audience too. Garth impressed alone on stage with his acoustic guitar as he sang the song’s heartfelt lyrics. While a spotlight shined brightly on him at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the camera would frequently pan to Trisha as she looked on with a smile that was as bright as the spotlight on the stage.

“She lifts the weight of this old world off of my shoulder / With nothing but the touch of her hand / When I wake up and I tell her that I love her / I feel more like a man / I’d give her anything in life that’s mine to give her / Til the last breath that I breathe If I had a choice / I pray God takes me first because your stronger than me,” Garth sang. Watch his performance below.

Ahead of his performance, both Garth and Trisha admitted that they were nervous about the song’s debut.

“I can’t say anything other than this is the first she’s never heard it,” Garth revealed. “I made it all the way to here without her hearing it, so I’m almost there.”

“I’m like, ‘why am I so nervous?’ and I realize it’s because I don’t really like surprises and I have no idea what he’s gonna sing,” Trisha added.

Sometimes surprises are even better than you could have imagined, and perhaps Trisha will embrace them more often following Garth’s special performance.